Even-More-Successful Success!!!!

The best thing I've cooked so far!!!!! Also the first thing I've cooked that I would actually serve to someone else!


You know how I came up with this recipe? I just copied what I always saw the Centenary caf workers do at the pasta station! And I'm not even joking. Hahaha.

First I sautéed the zucchini (sliced more thinly this time), then I threw in the vegan hot dog slices. Once those items were cooked I threw in some canned Prego spaghetti sauce and some cooked spaghetti, and voila! Perfection. Seriously, that shit was good.

Tonight I am tackling something a bit more difficult, so I'll let you know how it goes!

Success!!!!

I finally made something delicious! It wasn't perfect, but I liked it a lot.

Alright, I know it looks weird, and it kind of was. I just grabbed a bunch of ingredients I felt like eating and sautéed them together. This concoction contained leftover quinoa, sliced baby carrots, sliced zucchini, and a sliced vegan hot dog. (I'm completely serious.)

I was shocked by how well the quinoa and veggie dog went together. Seriously, that combination was fantastic. The actual veggies went pretty well in the mix too, but I should've cooked them a little longer. I didn't get the cooking order right - I should've put the veggies in the pan first, then the "meat," then the quinoa. (Note to self: just because it looks like meat doesn't mean it cooks like meat.) I also could've cut the veggies into thinner slices.

Oh, and the secret to my sauté success? Just Pam. Hahaha. For reals!

Not sure what I was thinking.

I don't have much of an excuse for this shenanigan of a meal.


I cooked some quinoa on the stove, mixed in some leftover lentils, and somehow thought I could pull it all together with a bit of balsamic vinaigrette. I found a recipe online for a warm quinoa and lentil salad, but I didn't want to go shop for all the vegetables and spices. So instead I just, you know, cut out all of the ingredients that were intended to go well with the vinaigrette. It also didn't help that the dressing poured out of the bottle way too quickly, so my meal was sort of drowned in a balsamic sea.

Verdict: Well, it tasted like quinoa and lentils covered in balsamic vinaigrette. Not much else to say about that.

I've discovered that cooking random ingredients isn't so hard: it's putting them together in an flavorful and appetizing arrangement that gives me trouble. Like, I can cook the quinoa no problem, but then what do I do with it? I should reemphasize my unwillingness to go back to the grocery store. I was just there yesterday.

On a side note, I'm becoming quite fond of lentils. And asparagus. God, I love me some asparagus. I just wish it didn't make my pee smell so weird.

In other news, I'm about 30 pages from the end of The Fault in Our Stars, and I'm going to see John and Hank tomorrow!!!

I'm Learning to Cook

It's been a long time (long time). I shouldn't have left you (left you)
Without a dope beat to step to (step to, step-step to, step to, step to).

Alright, enough lyrically-relevant 90's jams. I haven't blogged in forever, and I'm not sure I'm going to try to catch up. I think I'll just start with right now and only provide backstory if it serves the blog.

So what am I up to right now? Well, today I slept 'til noon, went for a run around the LSU lakes (I love to run now!), and then I got groceries and cooked myself dinner. And THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout.

I decided today that I want to learn to cook for real. No more Lean Cuisine, no more pasta and canned veggies for every meal. It's going to be a trial-and-error process for sure, and it may not make the most interesting blogging. But if you'd like to follow me on this journey, you are more than welcome.

Tonight I started with something fairly simple: basmati rice with lentils.

(The asparagus came from a frozen steamer bag, so they don't count. And yes, I need to work on my portion control. One thing at a time!)

I cooked the rice and lentils in two separate pots. I was surprised at how easy it was to cook rice on the stove. I don't have a rice cooker at the moment, so I had to make do. I let them both cook for about 15 minutes, and then I just combined them on the plate and added a tiny bit of soy sauce.

Verdict: Not bad. Pretty tasty, very filling. I didn't quite mix the soy sauce evenly, so parts of it were a little dry. The parts with more soy sauce were great, though!

I want to explore new ways to cook this meal. Soy sauce is pretty heavy on the sodium, so I'd like to find a way around that. Next time I might try sautéing the cooked rice and lentils together with some olive oil and maybe some onions. I bet that would be fantastic.

So that's meal #1. This should be fun for me. For you, maybe not so much. We shall see.

In other news, I'm going to see John and Hank Green in New Orleans on Wednesday!!!! I'm pretty psyched. I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Fault in Our Stars, and I love it so much. I'm going to do my best to finish it before the event, so you may not hear from me again in the next few days. If you happen to be at the NOLA event, please find me and say hi!